Pochero with Spicy Eggplant Sauce

On September 10, 2010 by Connie Veneracion

This is an updated entry. The Filipino version I grew up with, originally published in 2003, is on page two.

Puchero is a Spanish and South American dish and there are so many versions that it’s sometimes confusing how to distinguish the puchero from other stews. The common factor is that all puchero dishes are stews. What the ingredients are, even what kind of meats go into it, vary from region to region. Some include salted and cured meat like ham and sausages; others don’t. While chick peas (garbanzos) is a feature of the Spanish puchero, this ingredient does not appear in the puchero of Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.

The Filipino pochero which most closely resembles the Spanish variant is often cooked with tomatoes, saba bananas, potatoes, carrots and cabbage wedges.

I don’t know which regional variation this recipe resembles the most but this one does not contain tomatoes nor tomato sauce.

A one-kilogram piece of tender chuck (with bone and marrow), a piece of parma ham, a large piece of ham bone, two chorizos de bilbao and chicken were slow cooked with spices and seasonings; the vegetables were cooked in the broth separately. The meats and vegetables were scooped out of the broth, arranged on a platter and served with the broth on the side. It was delicious.

The meats were oh, so, tender and the broth was rich from the flavors and colors of the parma ham, ham bones and sausages. There’s really something magical and comforting about slow cooked food. You can cook a large pot of puchero (double, tripe or quadruple the ingredients) and serve the meat and vegetables in several platters for a party. It’s no-fuss cooking because you cook your soup, vegetables and meat all at the same time. Perfect for Christmas family gatherings.

Ingredients

1 kg. of stewing beef, preferably in one piece
about a 150 g. piece of parma ham
2 chorizos de bilbao
ham bones

Instructions

Heat the olive oil in a large thick-bottomed pot. Sear the beef on all sides (searing prevents scum from forming). Add the whole chorizos, ham and ham bones. Season with salt (start with just a teaspoonful or so since the ham and chorizos are salty). Add the onions, garlic, peppercorns and bay leaves. Pour in enough water to cover. Bring to the boil, lower the heat then simmer for two to three hours or until the beef is tender.

When the beef is almost done, taste the broth. If it needs more salt, add more. Using a ladle, take about two to three cups of the broth and pour into another pan. Turn up the heat, add the chicken pieces to the meat, bring to the boil, lower the heat and simmer until the chicken is done.

To the broth in the second pan, add the vegetables. Bring to the boil, lower the heat and simmer until done.

To serve, scoop out the meat. Arrange on a platter (you may want to cut the sausages and parma ham at before adding to the platter but I suggest that you leave the beef and chicken whole). Arrange the vegetables around the meat or at the center of the platter. Ladle the broth into individual bowls. Serve the meat with the soup on the side.

On page two, the tomato sauce based pochero that my father and grandparents used to prepare for family gatherings and weekend lunches. The recipe for the spicy eggplant sauce comes after the old pochero recipe.

Quick Notes

*Ham bones are sold as scrap by some ham makers. Majestic Ham, for instance, does this. I usually buy my ham bones from the Majestic Ham outlet at Shopwise Libis.

*If you use dried chick peas, you will have to soak them overnight prior to cooking. The skins will also have to be peeled. The cooking time required is usually several hours so I suggest you add them to the pot from the start of cooking time.

Connie, ako na rin ang sasagot sa tanong ko. lol Kasi I was going through my old recipes looking for dishes I will serve at our Thanksgiving get-together this weekend and I found a paella recipe a friend shared with me a few years back. It also calls for chorizo de bilbao – or hot Italian sausage. I went grocery shopping with my hubby this morning and found the hot Italian sausage – pero it looked like our longganisa, which means it will crumble. So I told one of the grocery employees about my “problem” and she suggested to check the chorizos in the deli section. (I didn’t know they have them.) I picked up a package of hot Portuguese (ibang nationality naman) chorizos. I hope it works in the paella, so I can use the same in your seemingly yummy pochero recipe. Picture pa lang nakakatakam na. I’m becomng more resourceful because of your very interesting blog, Connie. Thanks.

The hot Portuguese chorizos were too hot for my liking, and my paella didn’t turn out the way I expected. It was soggy. Not all rice brands are alike. (Why didn’t I think about that earlier?). Anyway, things happen for a reason. My hubby tasted the chicken, shrimps and mussels from the liquidy paella and said they were delicious. And a new dish was born. I followed the paella recipe, minus the rice, and everybody said it was great.

Hi Miss Connie,
Would it make a difference if i put in raw uncooked bananas, say in the latter part of cooking the dish, than the fried ones? Im just checking if it would make a difference. I am absolutely ecstatic to try out this recipe for my family. thanks so much for your blog!

Hi Connie! I cooked na din this one….sarap talga with eggplant pa…..My husband and kids love it too….also my bestfriend and her husband….Yummmy! I cooked this twice na ….Thank you talga for all your yummy recipes….

My grandmother use to make something very similar to this on very special occasion when all her grandchildren would be at there house for a special celebration. She says…”the dish has everything for everybody” which is true!

She would included Whole Pork Pata, whole chicken, beef and chorizos with an assortment of veggies and root crops- potatoes, carrots, camote, baguio beans, native pechay, cabbage, saba and garbansos.

The assorted meat would be cut up and put in one platter and the veggies in another, the soup being served in individual bowls- she would sometimes add sotonghan to the soup. I remember she called this COCIDO.

Any leftover cocido the following day would be reheated and she would add a can or two of pork and beans thus thickening the sauce. She called this POCHERO.

The pochero is then served with a side dish sort of “relish” or sawsawan made with grilled egplants which she would peel and dice and add vinigar, black pepper, diced onions and garlic. I personally didnt really care much for this relish because I already loved the pochero as is but the oldies insisted that pochero could only be complete if served with this relish sawsawan.

Regarding the sawsawan relish: add just enough vinegar to moisten the eggplant slightly. It should still be very thick and chunky (if you just diced the grilled eggplant) and spreadable if you were to put it on toast or crackers.

hi ms. connie, looks delicious. last saturday, I tried your recipe of pancit made with dried flat noodles, pork and mushrooms for my mother-in-law’s bday. it was a hit! hope they have ham bones in Shopwise filinvest. thanks much!

you got a fan out there with my husband. he wants us to try your ice cream recipes. especially the one made with blueberries. now i really have to buy that cuisinart ice cream maker but i wonder if its good to buy thru amazon, they have 50% price cut for the same model…